CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
We headed south on I-485, exited, and pulled into the parking lot of a Hooters Restaurant.
The Happy Hour crowd was there, mostly blue-collar types drinking beer and chatting up the waitresses. Jock and I took seats at the bar and ordered drinks, a diet Coke for me and an O’Doul’s for Jock. When the bartender brought them, I asked, “Is there a waitress here named Sally?”
“I can’t talk about that.”
“Did you know Katherine Brewster?”
“Yes.”
I handed her a card that showed that I was a lawyer in Longboat Key. “I’m trying to help her family find out who killed her. Katherine’s boyfriend, Doug Peterson, told me that Sally might have some information that’d be helpful.”
“Let me ask around.” She took my card and left.
Jock and I sat and sipped our drinks. In a few minutes a woman in her mid-twenties came to the bar. She had the card I’d given the bartender in her hand. She stood next to me and said, “I’m Sally. Katherine was a very good friend of mine.”
“Thank you for speaking with me,” I said. “We’ve just left Doug Peterson. He said you might be able to help us.”
“If I can.”
“Doug says that Katherine was being stalked by one of the customers here. Do you know who that was?”
“Yes. His name’s John Doremus. Or at least that’s what he said.”
I looked at Jock. “John Doe is the name of the owner of EZGo,” he said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Sally, do you know anything else about him?”
“Not really. He told me one time he was involved with the mob, but I didn’t believe him.”
“What kind of mob?”
“I assumed he was talking about organized crime.”
“Have you seen him lately?”
“No. He hasn’t been in for a while.”
“Do you remember the last time you saw him here?”
“No. But I don’t think he’s been in since Kat died.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know where he lives?”
She laughed. “No, and I don’t want to know.”
“Can you describe him?”
“He’s about forty years old, dark hair that he parts in the middle. Wears it short, not a buzz cut, by not much longer than that. Has a lot of acne scars on his cheeks, a receding chin, a nose with a little hump on the bridge. He’s big, about six feet tall, pretty heavyset, a belly that hangs over his belt. Talks with some kind of Yankee accent, like from New Jersey or New York. His teeth are very white. They might be caps, or maybe he had one of those cosmetic whitening jobs.”
“You’re very observant,” Jock said.
“Gotta be with creeps like that. If I saw him outside the restaurant, I’d run the other way. Do you think he killed Kat?”
“Don’t know,” I said. “He’s what the police call a person of interest. I’d like to talk to him. Do you think there’d be any credit card information on him in your computers?”
“No. He always paid cash.”
“How often did he come in?” Jock asked.
“Almost every night. He usually came in late and stayed until closing. I think he always hoped one of the girls would go home with him.”
“Did any of them ever go out with him?”
“I never heard of any who did, and I kinda doubt anybody would. He was too creepy.”
“Did he seem to take an inordinate interest in any of the girls?”
“You mean other than Kat?”
“Yes.”
“He hit on everybody, but Kat seemed to be his favorite. I tried to warn Kat that he could be trouble, but she always saw the good in everybody. Said he was probably just lonely. Maybe her soft heart got her killed.”
“Maybe,” I said. “Did you ever see him in here with any Asian men?”
“Asian? No. Not that I remember.”
“How about an Asian woman?”
“Definitely no. I never saw him with a woman at all.”
“How did he dress?” I asked “
What do you mean?”
“Did he wear a suit and tie, casual clothes, jeans?”
“He usually had on a pair of dress slacks and a golf shirt. They were nice clothes. Expensive looking. He seemed to have a lot of money.”
“How so?”
“He always flashed a wad of bills when he was paying for his drinks. He was a good tipper and wore a big diamond ring on each pinkie.”
“Two rings?”
“Yes. I thought that was a little much, but you know how some guys are.”
“Are you sure they were diamonds?”
“No, but they didn’t look like glass. I guess they could’ve been cubic zirconia. I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.”